State may meet paddy buying target despite Phailin

Severe damage to paddy crop due to cyclone Phailin and floods notwithstanding, the Odisha government is confident of achieving the paddy procurement target in the current kharif market season (KMS).

The government aims to procure three million tonnes of paddy this year. The target was fixed before the cyclone battered the state. Last year, the state had procured 3.66 million tonne paddy against the target of 2.9 million tonne.

"We hope to achieve the target this year as the western Odisha districts have recorded bumper crop production in the current kharif," said state food supplies and consumer welfare minister Pratap Keshari Deb, here. While the farmers in south and north Odisha districts were severely affected by the twin calamities of cyclone and floods last month, the farmers in western Odisha were not affected. "The bumper harvest in western part of the state will help in achieving the procurement target," the minister said. The paddy procurement in some western Odisha districts has already started. Deb had come to Berhampur to attend the district collectors' conference on paddy procurement. The district collectors and civil supply officers (CSO) of eight southern Odisha districts and senior officers of the civil supply department, including its secretary Madhusudan Padhy, revenue divisional commissioner (RDC) southern division, Bikash Chandra Mohapatra attended the meeting.

The minister said, the state government would write to the Centre to procure the discoloured paddy from the state, particularly from the districts hit by Phailin and floods. "We have asked the district collectors to submit reports on the yield of damaged and discoloured paddy. Then we will write to the Centre to relax the norms for paddy procurement," he said. Though the exact amount of damaged and discoloured paddy produced in the state would be known only after crop cutting, the minister said, the quantities of this type of paddy would be huge as 40 percent area of the state was ravaged by cyclone and floods. Ganjam, a high paddy yielding state, was worst affected.

Since the southern Odisha districts bore the brunt of the natural calamities, the government has not fixed paddy procurement target for these districts. "The respective district administration will procure in these districts as per their convenience", minister said.